The present invention relates to bushings for battery terminals, and more specifically pertains to a battery terminal bushing incorporated into a battery cover and having a sealed, encapsulated bend that allows for frontal access to the battery termination.
Batteries have been in existence for a number of years. Moreover, batteries are produced in a variety of different forms. For example, one common variety of battery is provided with battery terminals vertically extending from the top of the battery enclosure. Such types of batteries are commonly found in automobiles. Those skilled in the battery arts generally refer to such batteries as standard top termination batteries.
In certain industries, such as the telecommunications industry, standard top termination batteries are not preferred. Rather, in such industries, like the telecommunications industry, batteries having frontal termination are preferred. Frontal termination batteries are those having their points of access for making connection to draw power from the battery located on a side (as opposed to a top) portion of the battery. In spite of the general affinity for frontal (rather than top) termination in the telecommunications industry, standard top termination batteries are still widely used in this industry; however, these batteries are usually modified to provide frontal termination.
In particular, those in the telecommunications industry are presently integrating termination transformation kits to standard top termination batteries to transform them into pseudo-frontal termination batteries. Typically, the use of such kits involves interconnecting one or more members between the top of the battery where the battery terminals are located, and a side portion of the battery where it is preferred to have power drawn from the battery. There is added cost in procuring a kit to facilitate running power from a standard top termination battery to a side portion of the battery. Additionally, such a kit typically has more than one piece, increasing the likelihood of losing one of the pieces and rendering the kit useless without a replacement piece. Moreover, attaching portions of such kits to the top of the batteries necessitates having greater space in between adjacent racks of batteries. In this regard, it is common in the telecommunications industry to find a series of vertically stacked racks, each containing a plurality of batteries. There would be considerable space savings if such kits were not needed.
Therefore, there existed a need to provide an improved battery terminal bushing integrally connected to a battery cover, having a portion connected to a Cast on Strap post in a battery, and having another portion extending to a side of the battery cover to permit frontal termination. Such an improved battery terminal bushing obviates the present practice of integrating termination transformation kits with standard top termination batteries.